To be honest, unless your hands are flexible enough to do the bent back thumb thing comfortably, I think it's a bad idea. If it happens naturally (a lot of people can easily hyperextend their thumbs ) then it's really not a huge deal, it certainly won't make you better than just angling the "normal" way, it's just another way of cutting through the strings a little easier.

A few other guys that do it are George Benson and Tosin Abasi, both very, very nifty players.

To be honest, unless your hands are flexible enough to do the bent back thumb thing comfortably, I think it's a bad idea. If it happens naturally (a lot of people can easily hyperextend their thumbs ) then it's really not a huge deal, it certainly won't make you better than just angling the "normal" way, it's just another way of cutting through the strings a little easier.

A few other guys that do it are George Benson and Tosin Abasi, both very, very nifty players.

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Ah, there you are!

Yeah, absolutely +1 on the above. Trying to perform with the bent thumb style only causes massive tension if you're not physiologically disposed towards it - I found it slowed me down quite significantly compared to "Vanilla" style.

I'm have been experimenting with the way he changes the angle of the pick.

Shawn's thumb position meant that the pick was flat against the pad of his index finger. Not on the side like the standard position or Yngwie. With the Yngwie method, a downstroke has the neck side of the pick hitting the string first. So to get the slicing effect, using Shawn's particular method you angle the pick up or using the Yngwie/stardard style angle the pick down.

Example (it's not my picture) (in this case showing a extreme angle):

The result is a smoother attack.

The advantages of tilting the pick upwards instead of downwards? To me it would seem that the angle of the pick in relation to the strings is more radical this way, which means that there's less resistance from crossing the string while picking. This could very well lead to greater speed and more fluid string crossing (smoothness). Also since the pick "slices through" the string instead of flicking it, the picking will most likely sound more legato than it does when picked normally as the string isn't moved so much by the pick.

Then again I can think of one major downside to this mode of picking too, or at least one aspect you'll have work it out and compesate for some how. For one, because the picking sounds more legato this way accenting notes or playing really staccatto will require a slight change in angle and the force.

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The top photo is how I hold my pick exactly. I have tried to tilt my pick the other way and play normally but I just cant do it cause I have been holding my pick that way for so many years. For me..I had to learn to really relax my picking hand holding it this way because if I tense up too much then I start to push my force of the grip of the pick back into my thumb and it causes my muscle between my thumb and first finger to swell so much that I end up losing the control of the pick and cant pick right. But I have learned to relax it alot.

Just to confirm from shawn lane himself on the REH power licks video, shawn used Dimarzio PAF pro's in both the charvel 750xl as well as the ibanez. the ibanez's PAF pro was a air version which dimarzio only made for him but you can mod any PAF pro yourself by removing the metal screw retainers and leaving a gap between the magnets edge and polepieces.
His vigiers came with Dimarzio air classics.